Original subtitles

Pierre Braunberger 95 Champs-Elysées

Presents...

THE BEAUTIFUL CHATEAUX OF THE LOVELY LOIRE VALLEY

O seasons, O châteaux

Narrated by...

Poems Read by...

CHÂTEAU FOR SALE

Around the year 1000, Fulk the Black, Count of Anjou,

was at war with Thibault the Trickster, Count of Blois.

Fulk the Black built more than 20 keeps:

this one in Langeais...

Look.

This cedar, after the one at the Tours museum,

is the largest in the region.

this one in Montrichard...

and this one in Loches — all in the same square style.

After the feudal wars, the crowns of France and England fought.

Sharply angled towers were built, like in Loches.

Or round towers like in Chinon...

and Montrésor.

The Angers fortress was ruled

by Fulk the Good, Fulk the Black, Fulk the Ill-Tempered,

and then Geoffrey the Fair,

who wore broom — or genet — in his hat,

giving the name Plantagenet to a dynasty:

Richard the Lionheart, John Lackland,

and the good King René, his heart full of love.

The château in Chinon saw the arrival of Joan of Arc.

She advanced through this great hall,

recognized the Dauphin Charles hiding among his advisors,

and promised him he would be crowned in Reims.

Chinon, with its picturesque walls,

attracts Sunday painters.

Jean Schubnel, former caretaker of the château,

spends all his free time painting, stone by stone...

the châteaux of the Loire.

He paints in the naive style.

He has a paper-souvenir-grocery- tobacco-notions shop

in Langeais...

where Louis XI built, near the old dungeon,

a fortified château.

A covered sentry walk 425 feet long

meant a besieged garrison could rapidly reach

the exact site of an attack.

From the courtyard, the château looks austere.

Langeais is, above all, a fortress.

The high walls prevented attackers from using ladders

and facilitated communication between watchtowers.

(MEN)

(PLUM TREES)

(WIDOWS)

Jean Bourré supervised the construction of these high walls.

But for himself he built a different type of château,

for the cannon had changed the art of defense.

Large moats were needed for defense against cannonballs.

The Plessis-Bourré château was once known

as Plessis The Windy.

It's built of tufa,

a local stone, very soft and white,

found in quarries surrounding the village of Bourré.

The last stonecutter, René Hardouin, does only restoration now.

Tufa is not used in modern construction.

The wars in France finally ended.

Peace settled over the Loire Valley.

Fortresses gave way

to more gracious dwellings.

In Ronsard's day there were no lime trees.

Like this château in Talcy,

where Ronsard courted Cassandre Salviati,

who inspired him to write

the first in his Amours series.

"I'd like to turn a rich yellow

And fall drop by golden drop

Into the bosom of my lovely Cassandre

As her eyelids lower with sleep

Will I never see a season bring

Truce or peace, life or death

To rip out the teeth of woes gnawing at me

My heart worn down by a powerful rasp"

- But Cassandre wasn't interested. - She preferred her neighbor.

"And yet you do not know

That like this lovely season, so your age will pass

Like a flower languishing down below

That passing time has failed to pluck

You despise nature

Are you so cruel as to scorn love?

The shepherdess at her spindle prattles on about her loves

And the shepherd boy answers her song

Here all things love

Everything speaks of love and yearns to burn in its flames

Only your heart, cold as the coldest ice

Remains stubborn

And refuses to love"

The House of Valois fell under the spell of this place

and decided to bring its court here.

Young Charles VIII wanted to build a grand residence

and chose Amboise,

like amber and framboise, or raspberry.

From the Île Saint-Jean, formerly known as the Isle of Gold...

one could see on the hillside

a château that was at the time only a fortress.

Charles VIII wanted Gothic style, and the chapel was soon completed.

He drove the workers hard, making them work by candlelight.

The king's abode was soon ready.

But the king went off to war in Italy.

Impressed by the gardens and palaces of Naples,

he brought back Italian artists

and gave them free reign.

This marked the beginning of an important artistic movement

that continued under Louis XII and François I:

the Renaissance.

Charles VIII died, and his widow, Anne of Brittany,

was legally required to marry the new king, Louis XII.

Their daughter Claude grew up in Amboise.

She became Queen Claude, namesake of the Reine Claude plum

and wife of François I.

In Blois, one can follow the progress of architecture.

In the early 1400s, Louis d'Orléans inherited a feudal château.

His son, Charles d'Orléans...

"The world is weary of me

And I am weary of the world"

...returned to Blois after 25 years of exile and imprisonment,

added on the Charles d'Orléans wing,

and took up poetry.

The Blois poetry contest was famous.

François Villon took part.

"I die of thirst beside the fountain

Hot as fire, shaking tooth on tooth"

Charles's son Louis XII built the Louis XII wing,

in which Italianate design elements were created

and incorporated in the Gothic style.

His son-in-law François I

built the Francois I wing,

where Italianate ornamentation

cover the walls in the Flamboyant style.

Among the resident poets then was Clément Marot.

"I am no longer who I was

And no longer will I ever be

My lovely spring and summertime

Through the open window have flown

Love...

You were my master

I worshipped you above all gods

If I could be born a second time

How much better I would serve you!"

Gaston d'Orléans, in the 17th century,

built the wing bearing his name.

Blois witnessed many historical events, including...

THE ASSASSINATION OF HENRI DE GUISE

Silence falls on the Guise dynasty...

and on all the phantom ladies of Chenonceau as well.

Pieced together like patchwork,

this legendary château is a whimsical collection of oddities.

On an old dungeon tower, a pinnacle turret.

On the foundations of a water mill, a chapel.

On a bridge, a long gallery.

If Chenonceau is full of fantasy and charm,

Azay-le-Rideau is pure Renaissance,

with no surprises.

This cedar turns silver at Christmastime.

Its towers and machicolations are decorative.

Symmetry reigns.

Chambord, a royal dream château,

is full of contradictions.

The decision to build on marshland

meant costly foundations.

It's a hunting lodge, but built on a vast scale.

And in this place of perpetual rain,

terraces and rooftops were built for social gatherings.

François I probably never imagined

that the 365 rooms, complete with fireplaces,

would be neither furnished nor inhabited

except during brief court visits.

Or that those who would most enjoy the château

would be three generations of caretakers.

Meet the caretakers' branch of the Chambord family.

They're back again, showing off.

From their terraces,

ladies would watch their lords depart for the hunt

with their dogs, horses, and falcons.

They'd sashay in court dress

through perfume stalls and ribbon shops

amid the balconies of this elegant locale.

Valençay's architecture is similar to that of Chambord...

built on solid foundations.

Entertainment here wasn't on the rooftops

but was nevertheless lofty.

There were perching peacocks...

perching cats...

and perching ladies.

The dungeon tower still exists, but purely for decoration.

Deprived of its raison d'être,

it becomes a corner pavilion,

like in this early example in Villandry

dating from the first half of the 16th century.

But the medieval moats remain.

Villandry is a model garden in French style.

"Artichoke and lettuce

Asparagus and parsnip

And the melons of Touraine

Are to me more royal fare

Than all the royal meats

Heaped upon one's plate"

The vegetable gardens are laid out and decorated with extreme care.

Every detail has a meaning.

The walkways are lined with lime trees.

The maze is hornbeam.

"I love to be free and long to be a captive"

As for love...

this is tragic love — daggers and swords.

Fickle love —

fans, love letters, butterfly wings.

Tender love — hearts and flames.

As for mad love...

that's another maze!

As for the Chanteloup château, phantom of the marshes...

nothing remains

but a pagoda.

The Duke of Choiseul, to show appreciation to friends

who remained faithful to him during his exile,

built this temple in their honor.

He had it engraved with Chinese characters

signifying gratitude, kindness,

harmony, and knowledge.

His father being a shipowner in Nantes,

and adventure having beckoned in his youth,

Monsieur Siffait, a general under the Empire, romantic and rich,

bought land on the banks of the Loire to build...

ruins.

And it ruined him.

He'd stroll among the stairways leading nowhere

and the unfinished rooms overlooking the water.

His whim became the strangest Loire château of all,

known as Siffait's Folly...

in memory of a general...

who dreamed of the sea.